E.B. White Quotes

"And then, just as Wilbur was settling down for his morning nap, he heard again the thin voice that had addressed him the night before.
"Salutations!" said the voice.
Wilbur jumped to his feet. "Salu-what?" he cried.
"Salutations!" repeated the voice.
"What are they, and where are you?" screamed Wilbur. "Please, please, tell me where you are. And what are salutations?"
"Salutations are greetings," said the voice. "When I say 'salutations,' it's just my fancy way of saying hello or good morning.

I’ve got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty — everything I don’t like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte, "That in itself is a tremendous thing."

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

I don't understand it, and I don't like what I don't understand.

If I can fool a bug... I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.

Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.

Advice to young writers wo want to get ahead without any annoying delays: don't write about Man, write about a man.

Life is like writing with a pen. You can cross out your past but you can't erase it.

"But we have received a sign, Edith - a mysterious sign. A miracle has happened on this farm... in the middle of the web there were the words 'Some Pig'... we have no ordinary pig."

"Well", said Mrs. Zuckerman, "it seems to me you're a little off. It seems to me we have no ordinary spider."

You're terrific as far as I am concerned.

The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of learning to make occasional wing shots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in the blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up.

In every queen there's a touch of floozy.

A mistake is simply another way of doing things.

The night seemed long. Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full. And when your stomach is empty and your mind is full, it's always hard to sleep.